Monday, November 13, 2006

Ohio Chili

It is November and it is time to take out the stew pot! I have been craving chili lately and thought about Skyline chili. It is a style of chili from Cincinnati, Ohio. The first time I heard of it I thought it sounded pretty strange as there is cinnamon in the chili. I have known many people from Cincinnati and they are all crazy about their style chili. The chili is served usually on top of spaghetti noodles and has cheddar cheese and raw onions added on the very top. Or if you want it "3-Way" the chili would also have sour cream. I made up my own recipe version over the weekend. If you would like to give it a try, here it is:

Lightly brown the beef in a large pot. While the beef is cooking, chop the onion into small pieces. Place half of the chopped onion on top of the beef to get mixed into the beef as it is being browned. Save the other half of the onion for later. After the beef is lightly browned, start adding all of the ingredients above into the pan. Once all of the ingredients are added, mix gently to fold the ingredients together. Cover and cook the mixture for 8 to 10 hours. If you need to leave the pot cooking for the day you can cook the mixture until it is boiling and then place it into a crock pot on low for the day. An hour before serving turn the crock pot to high. Serve the chili in deep small bowls. Sprinkle chili with shredded mild cheddar cheese and the raw chopped onion. If you would like to try it over spaghetti noodles: cook the spaghetti according to directions and drain. Place a small serving of spaghetti inside the serving bowl and then add the chili and fixings on top.